As the globe spun its way into the year 2000 early this morning, South Florida braced for midnight's arrival on its shores tonight with a final flurry of shopping and system checks.

Throughout the region, governments and private companies are erecting command centers and readying their computers for the double-aught rollover into a new era. The shift to "00" at the area's major utilities and agencies should go smoothly, officials stressed on Thursday, but no one is taking it for granted.

If nothing else, New Year's Eve will be the greatest working holiday in modern history. Local, state and federal agencies, utilities, and large businesses -- especially those steeped in technology -- will be fully staffed to make sure their computers handle the so-called millennium bug.

But even if the computers work, there's the human element. Police departments and other emergency agencies are on hurricane-level alert, preparing for everything from computer problems to major crimes as celebrants flock to private parties and South Florida's major venues.

"All of the plans we started a year or two years ago for Y2K preparedness are complete," said Broward County Administrator Roger Desjarlais. "If you overprepare, you get criticized; if you underprepare, you get criticized. We've probably erred on the side of overpreparing."

Citizens were taking their own Y2K preparations in stride. While supermarkets reported larger-than-normal crowds on Thursday, the runs on banks, gas stations and other businesses that some officials had feared did not materialize.

"I'm not worried at all. I am only here today because my car was on empty. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered," said Rosanne Abeles, as she waited at a filling station in Boca Raton. "My husband is frantic, running to ATMs and getting water, but I have total confidence we'll all survive this."

Others seemed even less bothered and spent the day running their usual between-holiday errands.

"I am not getting cash because of Y2K. I'm just not that worried," said Ryan McInerney as he visited an ATM in Delray Beach. "I don't think it is going to be quite so big as people fear. Maybe some of the big systems networks will have some problems, but most have been getting ready for this for a long time."

If there are computer problems, residents should have plenty of warning. Beginning at 5 EST this morning, midnight will be landing in the Pacific, then rolling over the Far East and Europe before hitting South Florida.

At 5 a.m., the New Year will alight on the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. An hour later, it will hit Auckland, its first major urban center, where Maori opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will greet the nation and much of the world via satellite.

At 8 a.m., Sydney, Australia, will launch its midnight celebrations with a fireworks show linked to the 2000 Olympics.

At 10 a.m., the tech-savvy Japanese will confront the millennium bug. Japan will be a key country to watch, as its major electricity and phone systems are run by much of the same technology used in the United States.

As the world continues to turn, midnight will follow in India, Russia and the major countries of Europe. Russia, with its severe economic problems, has been ill-prepared for Y2K. The French, on the other hand, have mostly dismissed the Y2K computer problem as hype. Both will be worth watching.

So by 7 tonight--five hours before midnight--Floridians should have a pretty good idea whether the billions used to fix their computer systems was money well spent.

Most local agencies and industries have been preparing for the event for more than a year. Most say they were Y2K-ready by last fall. While it's possible that phone lines may be jammed from overuse at midnight, computer problems likely will be minor, experts say, and will crop up sporadically during the next month.

More urgent, officials say, will be monitoring the large crowds, traffic and smaller celebrations for the many "parties of the century." Local governments have found themselves having to prepare for everything from large power outages to terrorist events--all on the biggest holiday evening of the year.

Broward County will activate its emergency operations center at noon today. A skeleton staff will start off, but it will quickly fill up with representatives from law enforcement, utilities, the Fire-Rescue Division and other vital services.

Officials will staff the center through the night. If everything appears stable by daybreak, they will begin to reduce staff, said Tony Carper, the county's emergency management director.

The preparations have stretched far beyond computers to include more mundane matters such as peanut butter.

Broward sheriff's officials are planning for a worst-case scenario by ordering two tons of peanut butter for the county's inmates in case jail officials are unable to cook, according to sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal.